Angelina Jolie Gives Us One Serious Pep Talk

Angelina Jolie Gives Us One Serious Pep Talk

Black leather, tattoos, and the artistic eye of Hedi Slimane? Yep, Angelina Jolie's June cover for Elle — photographed and styled by the Saint Laurent creative director — is about as cool as they come. Of course, we'd expect nothing less.

While the black-and-white photo shoot shows Jolie in her signature sultry guise, her accompanying interview is full of charming anecdotes about her family. There are the glowing stories about Brad, maternal references to her "shadow," Vivienne, and the rest of the Jolie-Pitt brood, and the revelation that she never thought she'd have kids or fall in love.

The highlight, however, is when the Maleficent star talks about her days as a wild child, which she says was “misinterpreted as [me] wanting to be rebellious."

“And, in fact it wasn’t a need to be destructive or rebellious — it’s that need to find a full voice, to push open the walls around you," she explained to Elle's Maggie Bullock. "You want to be free. And, as you start to feel that you are being corralled into a certain life, you kind of push against it. It may come out very strange, it may be interpreted wrong, but you’re trying to find out who you are.”

The elopement with Billy Bob Thornton, the vial of blood, the tattoos — as Jolie tells it, she was just trying to live life to the fullest. Dare we say we're inspired?

“I realized that very young — that a life where you don’t live to your full potential, or you don’t experiment, or you’re afraid, or you hesitate, or there are things you know you should do but you just don’t get around to them, is a life that I’d be miserable living," she said. "And, the only way to feel that I’m on the right path is just to be true to myself, whatever that may be, and that tends to come with stepping out of something that’s maybe safe or traditional.”

In other words, seize the day — but in your own way, of course.

Click through for a closer look at Jolie's shoot, or pick up the June issue when it's released in select cities on May 13 and nationwide on May 20. (Elle)